Classical Music Magazine October 1978
Rachmaninov Cello Sonata
Snape
Although tthe format was unchanged, the second Benson and Hedges Festival held in the Maltings at Snape between October 1 and 8 failed to achieve the homogeneity which characterised the first. Perhaps this was intentional, Jacob de Vries and his committee feeling that conflict of style can be as stimulating as artistic unity. Where Schubert and Britten complemented each other in 1977, Mozart and Rachmaninov were diametrically opposed in 1978. This was particularly evident in the contrived artificailty of the ‘Rachmozartiade’, since artists of sensitivity and discrimination would rarely consider alternating works by these two composers during a whole musical soiree.
Inevitably the most satisfying concerts were devoted to a single composer, and I cannot remember hearing the Amedeus Quartet in better form than on October 3, when they played Mozart’s Clarinet Quitet with a young American, Richard Stoltzman, whose tone-quality became absorbed into their string sound, creating a unique blend of colours which I had seen in the score but assumed impossible to acheive in performance. Listening to Stoltzman, I recalled a contemporary description of Anton Stadler’s tone as ‘so soft and sweet that nobody with a heart can resist it’, for this was a performance which communicated the quintessence of mature Mozart.
The following evening Stoltzman was joined by Atar Arad and Tamas Vasary in a delicious account of Mozart’s Trio, K498, which more than compensated for an unforgettably percussive attack on his Two-Piano Sonata k488 by Vasary and Annie Fischer, whom I christened Vasary and Bashary.
A change of both composer and performers after the interval gave the impression of a different concert, but a memorable one nevertheless, consisting of a superb interpretation of Rachmaninov’s Cello Sonata by Julian Lloyd Webber and Roger Vignoles, in which the meditative undercurrent of the music shone through the glitter of technically stunning performances from both players.
During the 1977 Fetsival, Vignoles established himself as a great accompanist in the tradition of Gerald Moore, Dalton Baldwin and Geoffrey Parsons, and his playing during this Festival inspired a number of outstanding performances, notably from Julian Lloyd Webber.
